


Practical

by flyingcarpet



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Character Study, Community: where_no_woman, Gen, Medical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-24
Updated: 2009-06-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 16:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingcarpet/pseuds/flyingcarpet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christine's quarters are cold and dark when she wakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practical

Christine's quarters are cold and dark when she wakes. It's always cold in space, but the darkness is only a product of the ship's computer. A timer, set to imitate the cycle of Sol. She tries not to think about it as she gets out of bed and goes about her routine, showering without water and dressing in a crisp white tunic like the others in her closet.

She walks slowly through the gleaming, polished corridors to the medbay, and she is an hour early for Beta shift, but no one questions it because every bed is filled and they need all the trained hands they can get. As soon as she's scrubbed down, McCoy is shouting for her and she's off, preparing a hypospray with one hand while she reaches for the patient's chart with the other.

It's not until hours later that she gets another moment of quiet and time to think. Captain Pike is out cold, sedated and pliant as she changes his catheter and washes his skin gently to prevent bedsores. It is just the two of them there, behind the curtain, and he isn't talking. Christine can hear the machines hum and the quiet noises of talk and treatment from the rest of the medbay.

She looks down at the body on the bed beneath her hands, and thinks of the dashing officer who stood at the podium and spoke to an auditorium full of bored nursing students about Starfleet, about the colonists and planets still undiscovered, and how every one of them needed trained medical professionals. Afterward, she approached him, feeling hesitant and silly. Her life was already planned out, no room for _five-year missions_ and _strange new worlds_. But somehow, when he talked, she could see herself there, in space, helping people who had never even heard of the planet Earth. Despite herself, she felt her plans for gleaming laboratories and biomedical breakthroughs giving way and being replaced by a new dream. She set aside that application for the internship with Dr. Korby, and enlisted in Starfleet instead. When she's done, she drops her gloves in a waste container, pulls the covers back up over the Captain's chest, and steps out through the curtain back into the bustle and commotion of the medbay.

Hours later Beta shift draws to a close, but the only way Christine knows the difference is that her relief arrives, looking starched and efficient, and pulls the padd from her hand. "Get some rest, Chapel," she says, and Christine smiles at her to show that she knows she means well, and heads toward the door. Just before she reaches the corridor, she turns and looks over the room. In the very back corner, McCoy is sitting with his feet propped on the attending physician's desk with a padd in his lap. Puri's office is shuttered and dark next to him, unused. She remembers him shouting for her as she walked in, nine hours ago, and turns.

"Time to eat, Doctor," she says, leaning her shoulder against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest, like she would with a difficult patient.

He looks up at her and blinks slowly, as if he's having trouble focusing on her. Half his mouth twists up in a piece of a smile: he knows what she's up to.

"You've been here since Alpha shift," she tells him. "Let the other kids have a chance."

He puts down the padd and rubs his eyes. "That obvious, huh?" When he stands, he wobbles unsteadily on his feet, but she pretends not to notice.

Later, Christine sits on the observation deck and looks out at the starfield beyond. Every glimmering point of light is another sun, surrounded by more planets. More worlds, more colonies, more civilizations to seek out and discover. She still remembers the way Captain Pike's voice rang out across that auditorium, the pictures that his words painted in her mind. She's only been in space for a few days, but she thinks maybe she was wrong back then, when she was stirred by his stories of faraway planets, exploration and colonization.

The stars beyond the viewscreen are beautiful, but the real wonder of her work is the people on board. Her patients, her superiors, her colleagues... and yes, her friends.

She's on shift again soon; the practical thing would be to return to quarters and get some rest. Instead, she makes her way toward the officer's lounge for a nightcap and some conversation.


End file.
